Science

For those who'd love a chance to view the Earth from on high… but also want to keep their feet planted firmly upon the ground, a new exhibition in western Germany is the ticket.

The suspended globe is 20 meters in diameter (65 feet) and is bathed in light by 12 separate video projectors.

The projected video is made up of ten different kinds of satellite information, each layered one atop the other. They include weather patterns, day/night and city lights. The dynamic image gives a realistic view of the planet as it would look from outer space.

Nils Sparwasser of the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR, or German Aerospace Center), which came up with the idea and provided the satellite data, told DW the video is seven times denser than what's typically seen inside a digital cinema.

Though the DLR's video trailer is in German, it's embedded here and is worth a watch even for those who don't understand the language:

The projected image is 58 million pixels and is composed of 1.5 million individual pictures running at 60 frames per second - a total of 11 terabytes of information.

The DLR's Earth Observation Center needed 115 days to compile it for projection onto the sphere.

The globe itself is suspended inside a 100-meter tower formerly used to store gases, the Gasometer, which is now used to feature art installations.

The globe is just one part of the #link:http://www.gasometer.de/en/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibition:"Intelligence of Creation" exhibition#, which opens March 11 in Oberhausen in western Germany. The exhibit runs through December 30.